User Submitted: Every Day I am Reminded

The Black American is a relatively new cultural phenomenon. We are not culturally African, but in practice we are not fully American. Every day I am bombarded by evidence of European, Asian, Indian, Jewish, Hispanic, and Islamic cultures, but mine, it would seem, is an accumulation of conflict with the dominant American demographic. I refuse to simply forget my culture simply because it makes some people uncomfortable. It is an immense part of this country’s history, and it’s the only history which the many generations of my ancestors in America have been able to preserve. It is uniquely ours, and should be remembered by everyone— not just Black Americans— as both a testament to the enduring human spirit and a lesson on the price of inhumanity.